Images of Women

Every single day, I get special treatment because I am a female.

Especially since I started driving, men tend to let me go, even though I don't have the right of way, help me park, even though I'm excellent at it, just to name a few. I'm not gonna lie, I do like the treatment but it still bothers me. What if I didn't look the way I looked, like an innocent little girl; would I still get treated the same?

Unfortunately, the ugly truth is that females are treated and judged

based on appearance/image. Right now, all around us, there are monster size, pocket size, traveling, static, glowing, dim, silent and loud advertisements, attempting to persuade females of all ages to buy, buy, buy to hopefully, maybe one day, look "beautiful."

A few years ago, a teacher showed me a great video on what

different cultures have thought and still think "beautiful" is. I was searching for hours for this video and I couldn't find it. So instead, I found some pictures that would help me explain the video. In China, small feet were considered beautiful, so women would bind their feet, and this would be the outcome: This doesn't happen anymore, but let's look back on our Disney Cartoon Movie, Cinderella. She wore a small glass slipper that she left when she ran out of the ball because it was midnight. The prince found this slipper, and vowed, whoever would fit the slipper, is his princess. I'm pretty sure she couldn't have been the only woman in the kingdom to have that shoe size. Let's say the prince found a girl who fit the shoe before he reached Cinderella's house. He would have married her! China's foot binding trickled into Walt Disney's interpretation of the old german faity tale and is subliminally telling little girls that if you have a little foot, you will marry a prince!

Aside from having small feet, having a small waist was always considered to be an asset to a women. Even now, we hear lyrics like "I met a girl! That's top of the line, cute face, small waist.." as being sexy. Women use corsets to reach this figure. Wearing a corset too tight affects the body like this: Seeing this before and after, you notice that the insides of the figure on the right are all mushed together. That can't possibly be healthy or good for her digestive system. I don't know if women still go to this extreme, but you still find many women still wearing girdles and other body shapers to look like, or help reach this form. From experience, they're annoying, hot and prevent me from eating well. I find no benefit in wearing things such as these. What if you do end up with a guy who likes you for looking like this? Once you take that off and he sees your true figure, do you honestly think he would stay with you?

I'm from the Philippines Islands. It is always hot there and either sunny or raining. When walking in the sun a lot to where you need to go, especially when you are in a tropical place, one can't help but get tan. But to this day, the whiter you are, the more beautiful you are in my country. There are endless skin whitening products, ones that my mom, who lives here, gets especially shipped from the Philippines to keep up her "beautiful" complexion. Not only are the women using these products, my dad uses them too. You'll see all kinds of ads like this one in Filipino magazines: The women here are famous actresses in the Philippines, whom many females look up to. Their faces are almost as white as the clothes they wear. They compliment the stars in the background. To this day, I don't understand the history behind this expensive craze.

In the Transformations book, by Mary Crawford, aside from advertisements, she also mentions stereotypes of women in comparison to each other as well as men. In a nutshell, personality trait stereotypes of men are focused more on their self superiority like, independence, dominance, ambition, etc. whereas the women are emotional, sensitive, nurturing, etc. Although these are stereotypes, they do affect women in how they think women are supposed to act. When I was little, I wasn't supposed to play as rough as I did with the boys. I was supposed to just sit quietly. With my ex-boyfriend, my mom told me not to argue what I think is right, and just agree with him.

Personally, I have always disliked how women are perceived this time and age. I try to change these perceptions one conversation at a time.